I am entering the Indiana state fair this year and had a couple pix matted at one of those chain stores that does mounting/matting (I had the mounting and printing done elsewhere). The employee who did the matting used nothing more than double-sided tape. My concern is the images won't hold up in the Midwest humidity. For those of you who do your own matting, what do you use to keep the mats from warping under heat/humidity? Do I need to ask the employee to use something else and if so, what? The images have to be submitted for judging by this Sunday (7/25) so I don't have time to send them somewhere else other than the chain store that did them.
Thanks in advance!
Posted by Dan Borzynski on July 22, 2010 at 12:07 AM
What exactly did she do?
Double sided tape on the print is not a good idea. T-mounting should hold up well enough.
Double sided tape holding the mat to the backing board, or mat-to-mat on a double mat, shouldn't be an issue, Those boards are very thick and have nowhere near the flexibility of a print.
What causes warping is expansion along a linear dimension. Mat-to-Mat and mat to backing board will consist of materials that will expand and contract at about the same rate. The worse case for a properly matted print would be a little bit of bowing and even that shouldn't happen if the frame was properly sized. Photo papers of any sort are far more sensitive to this and expand and contract disproportionately more, relative to their size.
Amy, I print primarily gum bichromate (on Stonehenge or Berger COT320) and fiber based silver gelatin. All my prints are drymounted to 8 ply acid free matboard and titled, editioned, and signed on the mount as well as the verso. I've been doing this for over 20 years and it works fine, no delamination, no distortion. It worked well enough for the early 20th century masters.
Posted by Amy Lindsey on July 22, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Dan- The images were printed and matted at WHCC and I took them to Michael's for matting only. The employee initially T mounted each image to a piece of foam (one that had multiple cuts from a razor blade and looked very unprofessional) without attaching the mat to the iamge entirely. I'm guessing this was their idea of matting for a framed print. The extra piece of foam made the images too thick for the fair (image, mounting, and matting must be 3/16" of less in thickness). I had her remove the back piece of foam and asked her to simply mat the images. The images were printed on glossy paper and are matted on foamcore. With the mat, each image is 3/6" thick. She took a roll or double-sided tape, stuck a few strips on each edge of the mat, and stuck the mat to the gloosy image. It looks fine, but I'm afraid the tape will be coming off given a couple days of Indiana humidity. Besides that, 2 images cost $75 for custom matting, which seems ridiculous given that I could double-side tape them myself (granted, the mats had to be custom cut).
I am considering taking the image back for rematting, but wanted to know what to tell her to use instead of double-sided tape. She told me they use the tape for all custom mat jobs, including state fair jobs, and they've never had a problem with warping. Hmm....
I really hope I am not following what was done to your prints. If I am, you paid way to much for a crappy job.
Here is the quickest, easiest, cheapest (safe) and fairly reliable method for matting prints:
Materials: Backing board cut to size, either a foamcore or piece of matboard, a mat cut to size for the front, your print, hinging tape, doublesided tape.
I am assuming that you did not dry mount the print. If you did, this still should give you the right idea.
Step 1: Line up the top of the backing board with the top of the mat. Place a strip of hinge tape over where they line up, along most of the edge (follow the edges). Half of the tape should be on the mat and half on the the backing board. Cut and press down the tape. What you should have now when held up shaken is a backing board with the mat flopping against it.
Step 2: Place the print on the backing board and flop the mat on top of it. LIne up the print so that the photo is exactly where you want it. Now VERY carefully lift up the mat so you don't move the print. Put marks on the backing board so you know where the print goes.
Step 3: Make a T-mount with the hinging tape. First, cut a 1" piece hinging tape. Place it in the upper left corner of the back of the print, maybe an inch in. The sticky side of the tape should be on the back of the print, with 1/2+ of it exposed sticking up from the back
Cut a second piece of tape maybe 2" long. Place that piece sticky side to sticky side on the first piece, but very slightly above your print. The two pieces of tape should form a T (this being the T mount). If you put the print down and press on the corner where you just put the tape, you'll stick the print to the table, held to the table by the second peice of tape and the print held steady by the first piece of tape which is stuck to the second piece (which in turn is stuck to the table).
Repeat for the other corner.
Step 4: Remember those marks you made on the backing board so you knew where the print went? Very carefully place the print along those marks and lightly tap on the second peices of tape just enough to hold the print steady. Flop the mat back over the print and make sure it lines up properly.
If it does, lift up the mat and rub the second pieces of tape so that it firmly adheres to the backing board.
If it doesn't, unstick the second peices of tape from the backing board and move the print slightly. That's why you didn't want to press done hard on the tape and firmly adhering above. Repeat the check until you are satisfied.
Step 5: There should be some space between the edge of the print and the edge of the mounting board. Place a couple of strips of the two sided tape along those edges (NOT touching the print). Flop the mat board over, rub firmly but not enough to scuff the matboard but enough to make the double sided tape do its job. Note: Step 5 is optional.
Step 6: Enter the print and don't forget to collect your ribbons afterwards.
There are other alternatives, procedures and options but this gets you up and running and in a fairly reasonable printsafe method.
Don't forget to use fairly safe materials. Look for acid free or at least acid buffered materials. Cotton rag would be ideal but seriously expensive. Given that you already paid $75 for a job that sounds only slightly better than Scotch Tape and construction paper...
Discussion
4 repliesThanks in advance!
Double sided tape on the print is not a good idea. T-mounting should hold up well enough.
Double sided tape holding the mat to the backing board, or mat-to-mat on a double mat, shouldn't be an issue, Those boards are very thick and have nowhere near the flexibility of a print.
What causes warping is expansion along a linear dimension. Mat-to-Mat and mat to backing board will consist of materials that will expand and contract at about the same rate. The worse case for a properly matted print would be a little bit of bowing and even that shouldn't happen if the frame was properly sized. Photo papers of any sort are far more sensitive to this and expand and contract disproportionately more, relative to their size.
I am considering taking the image back for rematting, but wanted to know what to tell her to use instead of double-sided tape. She told me they use the tape for all custom mat jobs, including state fair jobs, and they've never had a problem with warping. Hmm....
Here is the quickest, easiest, cheapest (safe) and fairly reliable method for matting prints:
Materials: Backing board cut to size, either a foamcore or piece of matboard, a mat cut to size for the front, your print, hinging tape, doublesided tape.
I am assuming that you did not dry mount the print. If you did, this still should give you the right idea.
Step 1: Line up the top of the backing board with the top of the mat. Place a strip of hinge tape over where they line up, along most of the edge (follow the edges). Half of the tape should be on the mat and half on the the backing board. Cut and press down the tape. What you should have now when held up shaken is a backing board with the mat flopping against it.
Step 2: Place the print on the backing board and flop the mat on top of it. LIne up the print so that the photo is exactly where you want it. Now VERY carefully lift up the mat so you don't move the print. Put marks on the backing board so you know where the print goes.
Step 3: Make a T-mount with the hinging tape. First, cut a 1" piece hinging tape. Place it in the upper left corner of the back of the print, maybe an inch in. The sticky side of the tape should be on the back of the print, with 1/2+ of it exposed sticking up from the back
Cut a second piece of tape maybe 2" long. Place that piece sticky side to sticky side on the first piece, but very slightly above your print. The two pieces of tape should form a T (this being the T mount). If you put the print down and press on the corner where you just put the tape, you'll stick the print to the table, held to the table by the second peice of tape and the print held steady by the first piece of tape which is stuck to the second piece (which in turn is stuck to the table).
Repeat for the other corner.
Step 4: Remember those marks you made on the backing board so you knew where the print went? Very carefully place the print along those marks and lightly tap on the second peices of tape just enough to hold the print steady. Flop the mat back over the print and make sure it lines up properly.
If it does, lift up the mat and rub the second pieces of tape so that it firmly adheres to the backing board.
If it doesn't, unstick the second peices of tape from the backing board and move the print slightly. That's why you didn't want to press done hard on the tape and firmly adhering above. Repeat the check until you are satisfied.
Step 5: There should be some space between the edge of the print and the edge of the mounting board. Place a couple of strips of the two sided tape along those edges (NOT touching the print). Flop the mat board over, rub firmly but not enough to scuff the matboard but enough to make the double sided tape do its job. Note: Step 5 is optional.
Step 6: Enter the print and don't forget to collect your ribbons afterwards.
There are other alternatives, procedures and options but this gets you up and running and in a fairly reasonable printsafe method.
Don't forget to use fairly safe materials. Look for acid free or at least acid buffered materials. Cotton rag would be ideal but seriously expensive. Given that you already paid $75 for a job that sounds only slightly better than Scotch Tape and construction paper...